Amish Friendship Bread with …

I received this amazing recipe from my sister-in-law, Michelle. I was over at her house the other day making a wedding video for my sister and she had this YUMMY bread sitting there in her kitchen. I kid you not when I say I easily downed half a loaf myself…it was SO good! I asked her for the recipe and she told me it was an “Amish Friendship Bread” that you pass out to your friends and let them finish the starter bag you made for them. I love the entire concept of it! I am not sure where the recipe originates from, but this is the one my sister-in-law gave me and it really is SO GOOD! It has the bread consistency of zucchini or banana bread (really moist) and just the right amount of sweet! I have also included a printable version for you so you can print off some copies and give them out to your friends when you hand out your starters!Have so much fun and pass it along! This is a fun thing to do with neighbors, family, and friends!

You can find a printable version of this recipeto pass out to your friends HERE

AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD

Do not use any type of metal spoons or bowl for mixing. Do not refrigerate. If air gets into the bag, let it out. It is normal for the batter to rise, bubble, and ferment.

Day 1: Do nothing. This is the date on which you receive the bag. Squish-squash-mush the bag. Make sure the bag is dated!Day 2: Squish-squash-mush the bagDay 3: Squish-squash-mush the bagDay 4: Squish-squash-mush the bagDay 5: Squish-squash-mush the bagDay 6: Add to the bag 1 C. flour, 1 C. sugar, 1 C. milk. Squish-squash-mush the bag.Day 7: Squish-squash-mush the bagDay 8: Squish-squash-mush the bagDay 9: Squish-squash-mush the bagDay 10: BAKING DAY! Mix and divide the starter as follows:Pour entire contents of bag into large non-metal bowl and add: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk.

Measure out 4 separate batches of the starter batter, 1 cup each, into 4 separate Ziplock bags (one gallon size).Keep one for yourself and give the other 3 to friends along with a copy of this recipe/instructions.Pre-heat oven to 325

To the remaining batter in the bowl, add:

3 eggs

1 cup Canola oil

1/2 cup milk

1 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups flour

1 large box instant vanilla pudding (about 5.9 oz.)

In a separate bowl, mix together

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Grease or butter 2 large loaf pans. Dust the greased pans with half the cinnamon/sugar mixture.Pour batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle the top with remaining sugar mixture.Bake for 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from sides of pan and turn out to serving dish.If bag isn’t passed on to a friend on the 10th day, be certain to tell recipient which day the bag is at whengiven to them. If you keep a starter bag for yourself, you will be baking every 10 days.

OPTIONS: Add 1C. Chopped nuts or raisins. You can also exchange the Vanilla Pudding for Chocolate Pudding.

SIDE NOTE: This is not in the printable version because they will each receive their own starters, but to start the bread yourself here is the starter recipe you will use to get the Amish Friendship Bread recipe rolling

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk.Slowly stir in the warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Pour into a ziplock bag. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 on the cycle, or the day you receive the starter.For the next 10 days, handle the starter according to the instructions above.

Comments

Thank you so much for posting this! I had a starter for this bread, but let it lapse after I had my fourth child, and I wish I hadn't! Now I can make it again! I'm super excited, because it is SO good!! Thanks again!Did I use enough exclamation points? I can always throw it a few more. :)

My mother-in-law shared a starter with me once and after we gushed about how delicious the bread was, she decided to figure out how to make it without the starter and gave me this recipe. I LOVE it because now I can share it all the time! I hope people really try this out because it is one of the best desserts ever… my little guy calls it "snickerdoodle cake!"

Have fun with different flavors, too. It's been many years, but I've done it with lemon pudding (w/ poppyseeds) and, believe it or not, pistachio pudding is really good! I may have to start some up….again!

When I was a kid one of my moms friends gave her the starter bag for the Amish Friendship Bread and we had so much fun with it. I am so happy I came across this recipe. I'm a new follower. I just started my own blog it would make my day if you came and checked it out. http://www.arosiesweethome.com/

I love this bread too. Did you know that you can freeze the "pass on" bags and that way you always have some. You just let it defrost and that is day one or bake with it after it defrosts. A friend and I experimented with all the different favors too. Yum. I never had the starter recipe before, and now I can start the obsession again. – DawnJoy

I remember making amish bread with my mother, she passed on years ago and i decided to ask around for the recipe, i finally found someone who had it, and i love it! The only difference is my 'starter' called for 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk, and it turns out perfect everytime! All the other 'days' and ingredients are the same! Just saying:)

We love your bread! Your photo is beautiful! Stop over and give us a visit at Friendship Bread Kitchen! Check out the Recipe Box where you will find almost 200 variations on Amish Friendship Bread! If you would like to share your picture, we do have a submit photo button with the Recipe Box tab. We give full credit to photos/recipes and will link it back to your blog. Have a super sweet day, Friendship Bread Kitchen http://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com

I made some bread yesterday with a friend and though I had bought what I thought were large boxes of jell-o pudding mix, they were only 1.5 oz sized and the recipe said they should be 5.9 oz, so I used 3 boxes of the mix and the dough had to be spooned into the bread pans. The bread tasted good but seemed really dense, so I am going to use just one box next time. Since I wasn’t sure that the pudding box was the right size, I called my mom that had made the bread many times and asked her about the pudding, she had the large boxes of pudding in her cupboard and we discovered that both made the same amount of pudding but they were different sized boxes (hers being the 5.9 oz). So I suppose I’m wondering has anyone else run across this? Does jell-o make a different sized box? Should I use what I think the large box is and not worry about what the box size is as long as it makes the same amount.? Sorry that this is really long, I am a bit sleep-deprived and tend to ramble, LOL.

So, I… go through the starter and go through all ten days. This technically means I have the starter for four loaves, right? On day ten, I pass off half of the starter mix to two friends (keeping two parts for myself for making a loaf and continuing it). My two friends then start at day one of the cycle, right?

i was given a starter bag months ago. On day ten I take 2 cups of mixture out. One to keep for myself one to give away. Then I double the rest of the recipe and make 4 loaves of bread. I always have someone willing to take a loaf of bread! My college age boys and their roommates are always asking when is it bread making day!

The starter freezes well. I always take mine out of the freezer on Thanksgiving day in order to begin making batches for Christmas gifts. This is the only time of year that I make this bread. The starter in my freezer now is the 7th generation!

Is there a way to make this without waiting the 10 days? I know I could keep 1 of my 4 bags and start over and use the 3 to make loaves that day, but wondered if there was another way. Please help, this is some of the best bread and I would love to make it when I feel like it rather than have to start when I get the urge. PLEASE HELP!!!

Can anyone please tell me the exact quantity of the “1 pkg. active dry yeast” for the starter recipe?
I would LOVE to try this, but I live in New Zealand so it’s extremely unlikely that we will have the same kind of “package”.
Thanks very much in advance!

Thank you for posting the starter recipe. I had one started years ago, but got tired of keeping it up. I didn’t know at the time I could freeze it. When I had it before, I lived in Texas – now I live in Colorado. Are there any high altitude instructions for baking the loaves?
Thanks!

I am baking this as I type and my whole house smells like cinnamon! You NEVER forget the smell of the starter as it’s doing it’s thing those 10 days! Maybe I’m crazy but I kind of like it. Brings back good memories! I remember squishing the bags and passing them around with my friends maybe 15 years ago or so. =) funny thing is, I don’t remember the bread itself–just the process! I’m so glad to have found the starter recipe so I can keep this going!

I have two recipes from way back of this Amish Friendship Bread, but they both call for 1 1/2 cup of each, milk, flour and sugar at day 6 and day 10 ~ So what gives? Is there a difference? I would think there would be… Please respond so I can get it right.
These recipes I have are almost the same except for the 1/2 cup difference and these are 20 year old recipes…
I’ll try it… it was good the last time… ;-)

Just a couple of notes and hints. I have made this for several years. After awhile, you run out of friends who will take starter, so instead of adding a whole cup of each, I cut it down to 1/2 cup of each and don’t give out starter. I always keep a cup for myself and bake off the rest. I have used other flavors of pudding with excellent results, including chocolate, butterscotch, pistachio, banana, and lemon. You just can’t go wrong with any of the flavors!! I also keep my starter in a Tupperware container with a lid and stir the mixture with a plastic or wooden spoon. I have used brown sugar when I have run out of white sugar with excellent results too. This recipe is pretty flexible!!

Hello! Just came across your blog, as I was looking for a printout of the 10 day recipe for a friend. I just made a batch of this bread on Monday, and used Pumpkin Spice pudding instead of vanilla – AMAZING!! I’m going to have to stock up on the pudding before it goes out of season!

How thick should the starter be? My previous starters I received from friends were a lot thinner than the starter this made. This starter made a runny cookie dough consistency for me. Did I mess it up?

I had this recipe given to me several years ago with a starter bag. I moved and lost the recipe and have been looking for it off and on for a couple years. I knew I found it because I remembered the pkg of vanilla instant pudding!
I also found out that when you have the new starter bags, you can freeze them and when you pull them out that starts as “day 1″. And it works great!
If you don’t have any friends to share with and have a few batches in the freezer, you can omit the 1 cup flour, sugar and milk on day 10 and just go on to the next step to make yourself just the two loafs! I added walnuts to mine! Hubby to a loaf to work and the guys all went nuts over it! Said it was the best bread they ever had! Of course, I sent a real stick of butter with him! Love, love this bread!!!

Thank you for this info. If I was to unfreeze the starter and wait for the ten days to just make this myself (the two loaf size, not to share) on day 10 I don’t add the 1 1/2 flour, sugar and milk but what about the day 6 ingredients? Still add them?

I have been looking for a starter for this bread for a while. I am so excited to start this because the bread is sooo delicious and very easy to do. THANK YOU! I can’t wait to come back and let you know how it goes!!